Grab bar



1929. J. A. HOEGGER 1,725,802

GRAB BAR Filed Nov. 22, 1927 Patented Aug. 27, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GRAB BAR.

Application filed November 22, 1927. Serial No. 235,037.

My invention relates to improvements in grab-bars such as are applied towalls of bath rooms as a hand hold for a bather. These grab-bars areoften associated with soap boxes which are recessed or applied to thewall of the bath room, but the grab-bar usually projects outward fromthe wall, and is generally made of frangible material such as the chinaor other ware forming the soap box. When thus made and arranged, thegrab-bars have certain objections which are rather serious. For examplethe fact that the grab-bar projects outward from the wall renders itquite likely to be struck by a person when he slips, to his injury, andWhat is more serious, the grab-bar because of its fragile character, andbecause of its projection, is quite likely to be broken, in which caseit is a dangerous menace, frequently cutting or bruising a person whocomes in contact with it, and furthermore it is of course useless afterbeing broken. The object of my invention is to obviate thesedifliculties, and arrange a grab-bar within a recess of the bath roomwall in such a way that it can be easily grasped by a person but will bebehind the front plane of the wall so that it cannot injuriously strikehim and will not be likely to be broken. My invention furthercontemplates makin the grab-bar of infrangible material, preferablymetal, and to associate it with a soap box in the wall so that thegrabbar can be carried in the soap box or recess without projecting fromthe plane of the soap box and wall, so that safety and convenience areequally subserved.

Reference to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecification, in which similar reference characters indicatecorresponding parts in all the views.

Figure l is a perspective View of my im proved grab-bar as applied to asoap box and wall.

Figure 2 is a front elevation partly in section of the soap box andgrab-bar, and

Figure 3 is a cross section on the line 33 of Figure 2.

In the drawings I have shown my im proved grab-bar 11 as applied to asoap box 10 which is of conventional type. The soap box it will beobserved is built into the wall so that the edges of the soap box areflush with the wall of the bath room, and the box forms a recess in thewall in which the grabbar 11 is arranged.

The grab-bar should be made of infrangible material, preferably metal ofsufiicient strength, and this can be fastened in the wall in anyconvenient way. I have shown it fas tened in the side walls of the soapbox as this is the most usual and convenient way of application. Asillustrated the grab-bar has screw threaded bores 12 in the ends, intowhich screws 13 are placed, and these have their ends supported in theholes 14: in the side walls of the soap box. Thus the grabbar can befastened to the soap box and the latter built into the wall in the usualway, so that the grab-bar will be convenient to grasp but will be heldbehind the plane of the bath room wall, thus preventing injuriouscontactwith it and also preventing it from being readily broken ordistorted.

As stated, I prefer to combine the grabbar with a soap box, butobviously it can be carried in a recess in the wall, even through therecess might not be a soap box, but might be made for the reception of agrab-bar so as to have it disposed behind the plane of the wall for thepurpose stated.

The combination with a soap box adapted for building into a bathroomwall so as to form a recess in the wall, of a metallic grabbardetac-hably supported at its ends only in 85 the box and lying behindthe front plane of the box in a position to be clear of all except theside walls.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification this18th day of November, 1927.

JOSEPH A. HOEGGER.

